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Music Marketing, Artists, & Entertainment News

What’s the Buzz around you???

Answering the tough but necessary questions about your current branding

Are you aware of what the music industry is saying about you or your work? Are they even saying anything at all? Do you have a “go to” outlet or media professional to keep you “buzz worthy”? These are important questions to answer when looking to know and understand how your audience perceives you. Whether you have a small community of followers or you’re well on your way to mainstream, it’s important that you stay up on what is being put out there about you to ensure that the messaging lines up with your brand.

Is your brand thoroughly defined?

Before you check to see if your “buzz” is fitting to your brand, you (and your team) must make sure that the brand and image is clearly defined. How do you want your audience to perceive you? How are you marketing yourself? What messages are you putting out there to make sure that you and your brand are on the same page? These key questions can serve as a guide in your brand/image definition.

You have to use this as a guide to make sure that all content pieces, photos, blogs, social media postings do not reflect anything outside of your brand. With this in mind, its ok to be yourself on your Twitter pages, candid photos etc. But you don’t want to get too out of hand with these. This comes into play when starting out and ensuring that you are not giving an image to the public that is outside of yourself. It’s ok to improve but it can be hard to keep up and image that is far off from the REAL you.

Research

Research your fan base to see why they constantly patronize you. Try to find out the key components of your image, brand, and/or projects that grabs them. These findings can help you to give them more of what they want and less of what they don’t want. How do you identify with them? What efforts can you make to continue to keep them in your corner even during the rough moments? In what areas are you lacking in connecting with them?

Also, in your research efforts you can see how the media defines you. What box/genre do they place you in and are you content? If not, how do you change that? If you currently do not have any media buzz, make sure your submissions and media pitches are within your brand/image so that you can start off on the right foot. Do not take any unnecessary roads to a quick media buzz which can result in a derailing of your branding. (Please read previous post: “Bad Press: Take It Or Leave It?”)

Defining and researching can give you a leg up on what is already out there and how you can stay in the right direction in your media buzz. Ask yourself and your team the necessary questions to get your started in the right direction or making sure that you are currently going in the right direction. There will be times when you cant control the things that are put on the media about you and/or your music. In these cases, take full advantage of the opportunities presented to you y radio shows, press releases, blog/magazine features to set the record straight. Stay consistent with your messaging as well so that your audience is not confused on the type of brand they are patronizing.